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.F852 
1904 
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FREEGARD 




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Freegard Family Notes. 



CHRISTMAS, MCMIV 



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REEGARD is not a very com- 
mon name, as an examination 
of English and American direc- 
tories will indicate. For several 
years I looked in vain to find 
the name without the owner of it being in 
some way related to my immediate family ; 
and I think it very probable that the English- 
speaking Freegards are all descended from the 
same ancestry. My father often mentioned 
that he knew of no individual bearing the 
name who was not in some degree related to 
himself. 

Notwithstanding this rarity of the name 
among those of the English tongue, I have 
been assured that in Germany the name or 



its equivalent is not uncommon ; and since 
residing in the United States have been many 
times asked if I were not a German. This 
supports a family tradition, that the Freegards 
came to England from Germany, emigrating 
from their homeland some two or three hun- 
dred years back in consequence of religious 
persecution. 

Upon this hypothesis is explained the reason 
why family records go back only four or five 
generations. The original English Freegards 
wished to enjoy the liberty of British citizen- 
ship and came there without wealth so far as 
money is concerned, so that there is little 
pride of birth to be handed down to the gener- 
ations following and no pedigree. The fact 
that the Freegards, so far as can be traced, 
have been socially always among the workers 
and those whose business life was that of the 
great mass of their fellows, can therefore be 



easily understood. At the same time they 
appear to have generally made an honorable 
record, and to have eaten the bread of indus- 
try and cheerfully performed the obligations 
of good citizenship. 

The early Freegards settled in the county of 
Wilts, England, and were farmers. My grand- 
father was named Job Freegard, and was the 
son of a baker and small farmer who lived at 
a place called Whitley, near Melksham, in 
Wiltshire. He w^as born in Melksham in 1779, 
and died at Calne, Wiltshire, November 13, 
1850, aged 71 years, in which latter place he 
carried on the business of bootmaking. My 
grandmother Freegard, wife of said Job, was 
a daughter of a family named Stantial, and 
was christened Ann. This Ann Stantial was 
born in Calne, January 26, 1781, and died in 
the same place January 26, 1868, aged 87 
years. Her birth and death were on the same 



day of the same calendar month. The Stan- 
tials were also farmers. I have no memoran- 
dum of the date of the marriage of my grand- 
father Job Freegard to Ann Stantial. The 
particulars here recorded I obtained from my 
father in the year 1884, when paying him a 
visit. 

My father was one of a large family, some 
members of which I have seen and others often 
heard about, as visits were occasionally made 
by them to my home at Dover. He was 
christened Edwin Charles, and was brought up 
to the bootmaking business carried on by his 
father. He also was born at Calne, Decem- 
ber 7, 1814, and died at Dover, in the county 
of Kent, May 4, 1887, being somewhat over 
72 years of age. He was fairly-well educated, 
as were all his brothers and sisters. As a 
young man he became dissatisfied with the 
narrow routine of his home, or had ambition 

6 



to see other localities than the neighborhood 
where his parents were born and where they 
spent their lives, and so entered the ranks of 
''journeymen" and traveled from Calne in 
Wiltshire to London, where he w^orked for a 
time ; afterwards w^alking on to Dover in Kent, 
at w^hich place his travels ended. I remember 
his telling how, as a young man of only 19 
years, he sat on a mile-stone at Grabble Hill, 
just before reaching the town, footsore and dis- 
couraged, and how^ he w^ept in his perplexity. 

But in Dover, though he never had or wished 
for surcease of labor, he did obtain the rest of 
a home, for he there found a good and indus- 
trious woman who became his ''helpmeet" 
about one year afterwards. 

My mother was the daughter of a blacksmith 
named John May and Ann his wife. John 
May was borrt at Fordwich, near Canterbury, 
Kent, September 8, 1785. His wife's maiden 



name was Stokes ; she was born at Hythe, 
Kent, March 9, 1785. Of the date of the mar- 
riage of my maternal grandparents I have no 
record. They Kved together a good long life, 
and of them I have distinct and affectionate 
memory. My grandfather May died February 
24th, 1859, aged 73 years ; my grandmother 
May died March 9, 1862, aged 77 years. They 
sleep together in Old St. Mary's Cemetery, 
Dover ; a stone marks their resting place. 

John and Ann May were the parents of five 
children, to- wit : 

Ann (my mother), born at Deal, Jan. 31, 1812. 
Edmund, born at Sandwich, Sept. 21, 1813. 
John, born at Dover, July 21, 1817. 
Henry, born at Dover, Oct. 30, 1820. 
Hannah, born at Dover, July 13, 1825. 

From these dates it will be seen that John 

8 



and Ann May moved their residence to Dover, 
Kent, between 1813 and 1817. 

My father, Edwin Charles Freegard, and my 
mother, Ann May, were married in St. Mary's 
parish church, Dover, on the 10th day of No- 
vember, 1834. 

My mother died at Dover, March 24, 1883, 
aged 71 years. These dear parents sleep side 
by side in Charlton New Cemetery, Dover, 
where a stone indicates their resting place. 

The children of Edwin Charles and Ann 
Freegard were all born at Dover, as follows : 

Ann, August, 5, 1835. 
Henry Charles, December 14, 1837. 
Ehzabeth, August 29, 1840. 
Edwdn (myseh), March 28, 1843. 
Job, January 16, 1846. 
John, July 27, 1848. 
Frank, February 2, 1851. 
James, July 18, 1854. 

9 



We were christened at St. Mary's Church. 

At the date of this writing the children of 
this family still living are Edwin, Job, John 
and James. All of them married and their 
offspring are sufficient in number to enable 
the name of Freegard to become more wide- 
spread than heretofore. 

My sister Ann, who married her cousin Job 
Giddings, died at Chatham, Kent, February 5, 
1874. 

Henry died in London, January 29, 1892. 

Elizabeth died in London, February 6, 1899. 

Frank died in Leeds, May 24, 1900. 

From my sisters and brothers I have been 
many years separated, by reason of removal 
to the United States of America ; but the com- 
mon blood flowing in our veins has bound us 
by ties of affection, and kept alive our interest 
in each other's welfare. 

The dates given above are from the family 

10 



Bible, a copy of which record was made by my 
father, who entered the original, and sent me 
at St. Louis, Mo., by request. 



Coming to my personal history — in England 
— the first date my memory fixes on is when, 
a small child between four and five years of 
age, I went to an "old ma'am" school kept 
by a woman named Clements. Next when, 
between five and six, I was taken with my 
brother to Christ Church National School, 
Dover, at its opening in 1848. My father had 
applied for my admission even though I was 
one year under the prescribed age, and it was 
doubtful whether I should have been received 
had it not been that I was able to read a little. 

11 



To this school I went regularly for upwards of 
seven years, and learned all that a common 
school boy was expected to know at that period. 
During the whole of my attendance at Christ 
Church School the school was taught by a Mr. 
William Russell — a gentleman of good infor- 
mation, patient, occasionally severe, but who 
always had a Christian bearing and took in- 
terest in his boys, as I clearly remember, not 
only with reference to their mortal, but also 
their immortal interests. At this distance of 
time I call to mind the special prayer offered 
on my behalf on the closing afternoon of my 
school days at the regular hour for devotional 
exercises. 

At about thirteen years of age I began work 
at various small occupations, and among them 
at the printing ofRce of a friend of my father 
named Gardner. It was a small concern con- 
ducted in conjunction with an engraving and 

12 



stationery business ; there I learned to set up 
my first type — a song of some kind, issued in 
small sheet form and sold for a penny. It 
was while working there that an advertise- 
ment appeared in the Dover Chronicle newspa- 
per for an apprentice to the printing business ; 
and seeing it my father asked if I thought I 
should like to learn the printer's trade. On 
my making assent application was entered for 
the place. I was accepted after due trial, and 
at 14 years of age was apprenticed for seven 
years by legal indenture (which document I 
still possess) to the Rev. T. B. W. Briggs, 
who with his brother John were the proprietors 
and editors of the Dover Chronicle. Both the 
Briggses were Unitarian ministers and offi- 
ciated in the Unitarian Baptist Church. 

Of the routine of that seven years' servitude 
I have little to say. They seemed long years, 
but were years of association with a good man 

13 



named Collier, who held the position of over- 
seer (now called foreman), and who was an 
example to the boys and men under his ad- 
ministration of what an employee should be. 
He aimed to influence for good, and I am 
sure in many instances he was successful. 

One of the most useful institutions I belonged 
to during my apprenticeship was the Dover 
Young Men's Christian Association, where for 
several years I came into spiritual and intel- 
lectual friction with minds of such calibre as 
were helpful to an ambitious young man. 
Some of those with whom I there held friendly 
debate have since filled eminent positions in 
business, legal and church life, and have 
reached the place where local history mentions 
them with honor. 

On my 21st birthday, March 28, 1864, I 
came ''out of my time," as we used to say, 
and the same day went to London, where a 

14 



situation had been secured for me by a friend 
of Mr. Collier, and where I worked a few 
months. Work becoming slack I took a sec- 
ond job, and after that accepted management 
of a small printing office at Sutton in Surrey, 
12 miles south of the London General Post 
Office, owned by a Mr. John Morgan, with 
w^hom I stayed about two years. 

It was while employed at Sutton that my 
old foreman, Mr. Collier, in conjunction with 
Mr. George Dann, who had also for some 
years been employed on the Dover Chronicle j 
went into business in Dover on their own 
account, and started a sheet known as the 
Dover News, as well as running a general job 
printing business. 

When visiting home on one occasion I 
learned they needed a third to take a share 
in the business, so that the greatest econ- 
omy of money expenditure might be main- 

15 



tained. Thinking there was future promise 
for me, and that a young man could accom- 
plish great things if he only had the opportu- 
nity, I gave up my position at Sutton and cast 
my lot with the Dover Neivs, where for the first 
six months I labored without any financial 
reward. 

During this time I had not only become at 
home in the business, but had also become 
acquainted with the attractions of Mr. George 
Dann's daughter — Anne Elizabeth — to whom 
I paid such attentions as became the situation, 
and who subsequently became (and who is at 
this time, thank God!) my dear wife. For 
about three years I continued with the Dover 
Neivs, where I acted in the capacity of reporter 
and took care of the finances. However, 
because of insufficient capital and the difficulty 
of attracting remunerative business in a town 
already too well supplied with printing offices, 

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the business dragged, and I concluded that too 
many were endeavoring to make a Hving out 
of it, and resolved on seeking a new field of 
operations. 

Before leaving this part of these notes, I 
want to speak of the value which these good 
men (Mr. Dann and Mr. Collier) were to me 
by reason of association with them during the 
years of apprenticeship. They were pure- 
minded, conscientious and industrious ; and, 
like Job of ancient record, ** feared God and 
eschewed evil." They made no special effort 
to emphasize principles by lectures or preach- 
ments, but their daily life was a stimulus to 
good living. With my parents upright and 
pure-hearted, my business intimates such as I 
have described, and a life-long education in the 
value of church relationship, it would have 
been greatly to my dishonor had I not made 
choice to cast in my lot with those whose pur- 

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pose was to live for objects more noble than 
the simple sustenance and gratification of the 
lower requirements of human life. 

I was married to Anne Elizabeth Dann on 
the 19th day of May, 1867, early on a Sunday 
morning, in the new parish church of St. James, 
Dover ; and after a quiet wedding went together 
to church, then to dinner with my parents, 
and afterwards to our own home. No. 1 Buck- 
land Terrace, Dover, where our first two chil- 
dren were born. 

I refer to the quiet ceremony of our wedding 
day because my wife and self consider mar- 
riage the most sacred of human relationships, 
not to be lightly or carelessly entered upon ; 
this view we have impressed on our children, 
whose several marriages have also been of a 
quiet, religious character. 

Of my wife's progenitors the following com- 
prises a summary of the information at hand : 



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George Dann, m}^ wife's father, was the eld- 
est son of George Dann, a hcensed victualler 
of the town of Rye in the county of Sussex, 
England. He was born on the 30th of Octo- 
ber, 1818. When about fourteen years of age 
he was apprenticed to a printer, Henry Pocock 
Clark, of Rye, whom he served seven years, 
his apprenticeship indentures being dated De- 
cember 28, 1832. He came from Rye to 
Dover about the year 1842. 

My wife's mother was one of the several 
children of William Henry Brett, a miller 
of Dover, and was born in the year 1820. 
Her grandparents were named Vennell, and 
were residents of Rye in county of Kent. 
At time of her marriage to Mr. Dann she was 
the widow of John Pilcher of Dover. Her 
first husband's death left her with an infant 
son bearing the name of his father. Mrs. 
Dann's christian name was Elizabeth Vennell. 

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George Dann and Elizabeth Vennell Pileher 
were married in the parish church at Hougham 
near Dover, May 17, 1846. Her son John at 
once became a son to his step-father, and was 
ahvays treated with the same affection as the 
children afterwards born to him. 

Elizabeth Vennell Dann died at Dover May 
3, 1862, aged 42 years. 

The children of George and Elizabeth Ven- 
nell Dann were all born in Dover, and were as 
follows : 

Anne Elizabeth (my wife), born February, 
18, 1847. 

George (christened George Brett James 
Dann Edward Crowhurst Joseph Vennell, all 
family names, but which George, after residing 
a few years in the United States, changed to 
the simpler form of George Arthur), born May 
14, 1849. 

Albert Edward, born September 21, 1851, 

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who was married in the city of St. Louis, Mo., 
to Mary Jane Carter. 

WiUiam Henry, born September 19, 1854, 
who married Christina Hanna of Sahna, 
Kansas. 

Alfred Thomas, born May 19, 1858, who 
married Mamie Coleman of St. Louis, Mo. He 
died at St. Louis in January, 1897. 

My wife's father died in St. Louis November 
8, 1895, aged 77 years and 9 days. 

After the death of my wife's mother, Mr. 
Dann was married a second time — to Margaret 
Young of Dover, England, by whom he had 
three children, one of them dying in infancy. 
The other two were : Louise Margaret, who 
married and died at childbirth, and Joseph 
Herbert. Mrs. Margaret Dann and her son 
Joseph Herbert are living at this date. 



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Returning to my personal history, before 
enumerating the cliildren born to me, I would 
record that, in the year 1870, my wife and my- 
self determined upon removal from Dover, 
England, and emigrating to the United States. 
The selection of St. Louis in the State of Mis- 
souri was induced by the fact that my wife's 
half-brother, John Pilcher (w^ho used the sig- 
nature of John E. Pilcher), had a number of 
years prior, when quite a boy, emigrated 
thither, to an uncle named Henry Pilcher, and 
where he secured a position in the business of 
Waters, Simmons & Co. (now the Simmons 
Hardware Co.), and where he married and 
became one of the successful business men of 
that metropolitan city. 

At the time we sailed from Liverpool for the 
United States — July 26, 1870 — we had two 
children, both boys, with whom after a voy- 
age of 16% days in the steamer City of Dubhn, 

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of the Inman Line, we reached New York 
August 11, 1870; thence journeyed by rail to 
St. Louis, where we arrived August 16, 1870. 
Our very early residence in St. Louis was 
marred by the event of the death of our young- 
est boy, which occurred only 11 days after our 
arrival. He was buried in the burial lot 
owned by Mr. Henry Pilcher, in the old Picker 
Cemetery. 

The children born to me and my dear wife 
have been the following : 

Edwin Charles, born at Dover, England, 
January 29, 1868. He was married to Georgia 
Carmelich at St. Louis, Mo., by whom at this 
writing he has had eight children, all living 
but one, named respectively Ruth, Edith, 
Edwin, William, Bessie Irene, May, Charles, 
and Helen (lived only eight days). 

George Edward Dann, second son, was born 
at Dover, England, September 26, 1869, and 

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died at St. Louis, Mo., August 17, 1870, aged 
nearly 11 months. 

William May, third son, was born July 29, 
1871, at St. Louis, Mo. He married Alice 
Lansly Schroeder of St. Louis. No children 
have so far blessed this union. 

Charles Alfred, our fourth son, was born in 
St. Louis, May 13, 1876, and died in the same 
place February 20, 1877, aged 9 months and 
7 days. He was buried in St. Peter's Ceme- 
tery. 

Elizabeth Dann, our first daughter, was 
born May 31, 1879, at St. Louis, Mo. She 
married William Henry Wood of St. Louis, by 
whom she has borne three children at this 
writing, namely, Elizabeth Milborough, a son 
named after his father who lived only three 
days, and Dorothy May. 

Anne May, our second daughter, was born 
at St. Louis, May 30, 1883. She married 

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Frank Eli Wood, brother of her sister's hus- 
band. One daughter, Milborough, has been 
born to them. 

I leave it for our children to continue record- 
ing the dates of their children's births, etc. 



^ 



* 



* 



* 



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In the spring of the year following our emi- 
gration to the United States, my wife's father 
with Mrs. Margaret Dann and his four sons 
also emigrated from England, and settled in 
St. Louis, Mo. The year 1871 therefore found 
the entire Dann family living in that city. 
As indicated in the preceding pages, the Danns 
and Freegards bid fair to form an important 
element in the composite population of the 
United States. 

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Mr. John E. Pilcher should be remembered 
as having given a very warm welcome to those 
who followed him to this country. In his 
prosperity at this date, as first vice-president 
of the Simmons Hardware Company, after 
forty years' connection therewith, and also in 
the record made by Mr. A. E. Dann as treas- 
urer of the same company, with thirty years 
of honorable service, I am glad to be able to 
rejoice — not only as bearing testimony to 
their sterling qualities as men of business, but 
also as witness to the fact that their progeni- 
tors must have transmitted somewhat of their 
own excellencies of character. 

I trust the influence of the industrious, hon- 
orable lives of the men and women who were 
our progenitors may be further demonstrated 
in the lives of our children, and on through 
their children to successive generations. 

^^ ^^ %^ vL* >1< >1^ *^ ^^ 

^^ ^^ ^^ •Y* "X* ^P ^P ^* 

26 



Of my business affairs there is not very 
much of interest. After working in St. Louis 
as either journeyman or foreman for about 
seven years, on September 18, 1877, I formed 
a co-partnership with Mr. Charles H. Davis, 
the owner of a then small printing plant. 
I continued with him under the firm name 
of Davis & Freegard for six years, when the 
partnership became merged in the corporation 
known as the Commercial Printing Company. 

With Mr. Davis and the Commercial Print- 
ing Company I remained until the close of the 
year 1901 — a period of nearly a quarter cen- 
tury* During this time we experienced the 
usual vicissitudes of business life — legal com- 
plications, fires, etc. — but never failed in our 
integrity in commercial affairs. 

I bear testimony to the unfaltering fairness 
of Mr. Davis during the whole period. We 
never had a serious difference, though of 

27 



course we were not always of one mind as to 
the best course to pursue ; one or the other of 
us invariably yielded or we pursued a midway 
policy. 

As the best of friends must at sometime sep- 
arate, so we at the close of the year 1901, when 
I withdrew my interest in the Commercial 
Printing Company and with it started a new 
business taking in partnership my sons, Edwin 
Charles and William May, both of whom had 
had practical training. The firm of Edwin 
Freegard & Sons is doing business in St. Louis 
at this time, and completes its third year as 
the " Freegard Press" with prospects of further 
development. 

*^ ^s ?|i *^ ^T^ ^T^ *T^ <|> 

For years I have been interested in local and 
national employing printers' associations, es- 

28 



pecially in the organization known as the 
United Typothetae of America. 

For three years I filled its office of secretary, 
and from November, 1902, to March, 1904, gave 
my whole time to its affairs, with headquarters 
in the City of New York. This position re- 
quired that I should devote considerable time 
to travel in different parts of the country ; and 
I have therefore been enabled to obtain a fairly 
good estimate of the extent and resources of 
the land of my adoption and of which I am 
proud to be a citizen. 

In the year 1874 myself, wife and our two 
sons, Edwin C. and William M., paid a two 
months' visit to our old English home ; and I 
a second visit there in the year 1884, a few 
months after my mother's death. I had 

29 



arranged to visit home that year because of 
its being the fiftieth anniversary of my parents' 
marriage. My mother's death was a sad dis- 
appointment ; but I have always been glad that 
I did not permit my arrangements to be 
changed because of that event, as my father's 
death was deferred only four years. 

My immediate family have enjoyed the por- 
tion prayed for by the Psalmist — that of 
neither poverty nor riches. Our desires have 
been controlled by our means ; so that while 
we have not accumulated wealth, for which 
human kind so earnestly strive, we thank God 
that in no respect have we " lacked any good 
thing." At this time we form a united family. 




Christmas, 1904. 



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